The present invention relates generally to systems and methods for the exchange of information between instructors and students in an educational context. More specifically, the present invention relates to systems and methods in which an educational instructor interacts with one or more non-collocated students by transmitting course lectures, textbooks, literature, and other course materials, receiving student questions and input, and conducting participatory class discussions using an electronic network such as the Internet and World Wide Web. The present invention also relates to the provision of an infrastructure that allows for on-line registration and tuition payment of educational courses.
The ability of educators, including educational institutions, private corporations, and institutions of higher learning, to reach potential students has generally been limited by geography. In most instances, a potential student must physically move to within commuting distance or onto a campus in order to have access to course instructors, classes, and materials. Furthermore, potential students and persons seeking knowledge of all sorts are generally limited to proximate sources of courses of instruction, tutoring, or training. Due to these limitations, a prospective student must either seek to learn a given subject from whatever local means of instruction is available to her or move her household in order to be able to access her preferred sources of instruction. Many prospective students are deprived of receiving instruction from other, possibly better-qualified instructors or institutions located outside of their immediate locale. Similarly, educational institutions have been limited to serving only those students located within commutable distance of their campuses.
The advent of networked computers and communications has afforded a partial solution to these limitations. In particular, the widespread use and availability of electronic networks such as the Internet and the World Wide Web have made it possible for students and educators to overcome geographic dispersion and physical location as a barrier to education. Using this electronic medium, students and instructors are able to exchange information including (live or transcribed) classroom lectures, homework assignments, texts and materials, grading, (live or transcribed) question and answer interaction sessions, and other related information to effect a traditional learning or educational experience regardless of physical location.
However, electronic networks, including the Internet, are complex technological systems requiring the user to have or acquire specialized knowledge in order to use them effectively. Even graphical user interfaces (GUIs) designed to enhance simplicity of use, such as that provided by the World Wide Web, may require specialized knowledge of network terminology and technical aspects. For example, an Internet user's ability to access information using that medium is significantly reduced if the user lacks understanding of how to use Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) to traverse (i.e., navigate) web pages. Slow adoption of new technology and lack of technological sophistication have a chilling effect on the widespread use of the medium in general. Applied specifically in an educational context, these chilling factors apply to instructors who, while possessing high expertise in their respective intellectual or educational fields, would be required to further attain technological knowledge necessary to effectively use the Internet to educate non-collocated students.
Furthermore, the complexity of using the Internet for educational purposes is compounded as the number of user choices required at the user interface increases because not only must the instructor and students acquire technological competency in the use of the medium, but they must in addition understand the presentation and consequences of a plethora of choices required by a particular user interface (e.g., a web page). The design of the user interface therefore can be critical in enabling widespread use of the medium in an educational context. Solutions other than the present invention may be characterized as having relatively complicated and confusing user interfaces. Users, including both students and instructors, of these other solutions are confronted with one or more web pages that typically require the user to review and select a subsequent web page or function from among a large array of potential user choices, thereby complicating the user's task of interacting with the system.
Further, many educational institutions have existing or legacy network-based systems which students access to obtain various types of information (e.g., class schedules). The addition of yet another network-based system requires the host or sponsoring institution to incur implementation and maintenance costs associated with the installation, integration, administration, and maintenance of a new network-based system. These costs place limits on the achieving the widespread use of the medium for educational purposes.
Further, access, presentation, and aggregation of information contained in existing networks are provided from the institution's perspective and not an individual student's perspective. Typically, a student must access different locations or web pages of an institution's network for each datum she wishes to inspect. Further, a student may have to log-on to multiple networks in order to access different items of data. For example, a student may wish to view his financial aid status before registering for an upcoming course or semester. In existing networks, the student will have to traverse multiple web pages and possibly log-on to multiple networks in order to access his current financial aid status, assess that information, and then register online taking into account his particular information. Many similar situations are commonplace involving access to grading information, class schedule, exam materials, student group meetings, and other such information. Existing systems, in short, aggregate course, institution, and student information in an institution-centric manner. This imposes a time cost upon each student/user of the existing systems in order to reduce complexity from the institution's implementation and maintenance perspectives. However, given that these time costs are imposed on all students, the sum of these distributed costs outweigh the cost savings realized by the institution in the institution-centric approach, resulting in a net loss.
Further, instructors' teaching techniques are greatly variable, based on personal preference and the subject matter being taught. Network-based systems that do not provide for a significant degree of customization are ill-suited to address to this need to accommodate diverse teaching modes in a single system.
Further, a general concern with use of the electronic network medium is that response time tends to slow as more users are added to the system. As response time becomes prohibitive, the time- and cost-effectiveness associated with using the medium for educational purposes is greatly reduced.
Many colleges and universities have stayed away from allowing on-line registration and tuition payment for a number of reasons, including high initial setup costs and incompatible billing practices.
The exception to this rule are so-called virtual schools. Virtual schools traditionally charge an enrollment fee, and then offer free courses. In lieu of paying for each course taken, a student is subjected to advertising while viewing on-line course material. While such billing and income generation methods may be acceptable for companies providing on-line training, such methods are not consistent with traditional college and university billing practices. Colleges and universities typically charge a low enrollment fee and bill students on a per-credit or per-course basis.
Therefore, it is a general object of the present invention to provide a system and methods that allow users to interact with a computer network-based education support system through means of a simplified, easy-to-use user interface.
A further general object of the present invention is to provide a system that can be easily integrated with existing computer network and backend systems with minimal disruption to existing operations and systems.
A still further general object of the present invention is to provide a system that is scalable in order to accommodate increasing numbers of users, such that system responsiveness is not materially degraded as the number of users of the system grows to an increasingly large number.
A still further general object of the present invention is to provide a system and methods that can accommodate a variety of diverse teaching modes without requiring substantial modifications to the system.
A further object of the invention is to provide such a system that allows multiple types of users to access the features of the system as a function of their predefined role within the framework of the system (e.g. student, teacher, administrator).
It is a further object of the invention to provide such a system that integrates with the education platform provided therein value added services and control such as calendar, task, contact and communication functions.
These as well as other objects of the present invention are apparent upon inspection of this specification, including the drawings and appendices attached hereto.